Hot!

Back in Late! I blogged about the three things that make me cranky, bitchy and froth at the mouth.

Being too hot

Being hangry

Being late

My Number #1 pet peeve is humidity. While I hate to be hot, I loath humidity. It can make me cry in desperate frustration.

It’s been 40C/104F with the humiditiy the last few days. I am so thankful that I didn’t have to experience this heatwave while in chemo, but I am sure hoping it’s gone by the beginning of October as I start radiation. Having a burning, “sunburned” breast while sweating buckets in a 40C/104F apartment will not be fun. But the weather is thankfully supposed to break into cooler norms this weekend.

I have heat rashes all over … on any part that is bendy and creases. Inside my elbows, backs of my knees, my neck, my groin, under my arms. Hives started yesterday so I am slathered in steroidal cream and Benadryl. My fuzzy head sweats and itches under the wigs and drives me even crazier.

Did you know that violence escalates during heat waves? I learned that when I volunteered in an Emergency Room. Everyone’s temper flairs, it seems. There was a clear pattern that showed violent crimes peak during sweltering days (and nights). The humidity leaves us frantic and cranky. People don’t sleep well during humid nights. Add dehydration, lethargy and restricted activities … and our tempers flare and snap. If you can’t control your environment – like me, living in an older place which absorbs the heat – it becomes a source of irritation. And people snap.

There is even a Summer SAD (Seasonal Affected Disorder). The heat, humidity and sun can depress some people, and raise their anxiety to an almost suicidal level. Doctors have said they are seeing more and more of this as global warming temperatures soar. Scary thought, really. Especially considering that the average global temperature is going up.

Extreme heat and humidity affects us as much as extreme cold. We are more forgetful. Our bodies are concentrating on breathing that pea soup air and not worrying about remembering facts. It sucks the energy out of us. Everybody is lethargic when it’s as hot as hell.

University of California researchers discovered that throughout our world history, higher temperatures and more drought were consistently linked to increased violence. Why? Because humans literally become “hot headed”. Our brain temperature is subject to our body and ambient temperatures, and does seem to be linked to aggressive moods and behaviour.

Wars and the fallings of empires can be linked to upticks on the mercury.